Mangle & Mari
by Burmunchie
Summary: Robots and humans can't be friends! Unless they're both out of place in the world and as desperate as two cats in an oven. Sappy friendship story, setting of FNAF2 (but w/o the lore.)


It didn't make sense. Mangle had been trying to figure it out for two months now. No, it wasn't the missing kids. That made sense to her. Now she couldn't move. Every piece of her programming told her to move, but it was impossible.

The last kid who'd dared to mess with her parts had immobilised her. What had the owners been thinking, making a robot for the children to build? The staff were too lazy to try to fix her, and kids don't build robots well. Now Mangle just sat in a pile, in the corner of Kid's Cove, motionless.

* * *

It was ironic that the most empty place in the building was named Kid's Cove. That was what Mari was thinking as she walked into the room. She sat down at a table, placed her hands on her head, and began tracing shapes in the dust. She sighed emotionlessly…

_CLANG!_

Mari nearly fell off her seat when a muffled noise came from the pitch-black corner. As her startled paralysis faded, she got up to look for a light switch.

* * *

Mangle tried for the 48,792nd time to get up, and the awkward banging of metal that reached her microphones informed her that nothing new had happened. The sudden, blinding light that filled the room told her otherwise.

_ Is it a staff member on break?_ Mangle thought hopelessly. Seeing a small child walk up, she thought _another kid dared by their friends to come poke the scary Mangle? _If robots had hope, Mangle had none at the moment.

"Who are you?"

Mangle couldn't remember her actual name, only the nickname the kids had given her. Even the owner didn't remember her real name. "_I'm Mangle!_" The smile welded to her face and the up-beat tone she spoke with really didn't match her situation. "_What's your name, kid?_"

Mari hesitated before answering. "I'm uh... Mari."

"_Hi Mari, nice to meet you._" Mangle checked the wireless database for Mari, before coming to the conclusion that she had been disconnected from the database. Nobody remembered to update Mangle…

_CLANG!_

48,793 failures.

"Are you stuck?" Mari asked.

"I think so."

"Can I help?"

If her program had made it possible, Mangle would have winced. Would this kid bravely attempt to fix the ultimately broken animatronic again? She'd probably fail like all the others. Of course, she'd been programmed to allow kids to build her, so the sound out of her speakers was "_Sure! I'll bet you'll do great._" With no sarcasm.

Mari quickly set to work figuring out Mangle's limbs. She wasn't a professional robot builder, but she wasn't a dimwit either.

* * *

After about 15 minutes of silence and work, Mari stood back and looked over her work "Can you move now?" she asked the robot.

Mangle didn't respond with words. The only sound heard was-

_CLANG!_

After a few seconds of confused, anxious silence, metal servos began cranking loudly. Mangle moved, and moved, and moved! Oh, how wonderful it would be to be free! If robots had a sense of freedom, that is. Mangle moved around until her servos functioned regularly.

Mari sat still, watching Mangle slide around in a motion unlike anything else… maybe spider-like? It was really indescribable, the way she just slipped and threw herself across the room. As the creature approached her again, she fumbled for words.

"Uhh… So…"

Mangle interrupted with "_Great job, Mari! I like this new build._"

"You're welcome. I'm happy I could help."A smile filled up Mari's face.

"_You're my best friend!_" As per the magic of coincidences, Mangle's awkward childish programming had actually said something real.

Mari's smile got bigger as she said "I like you too, Mangle."

Everyone went silent as the calls of "Mari? Maaaariiiii?" came from behind the curtain into Kid's Cove. "Oh, there you are Mari!"

"Hello, mom."

"There's my birthday girl. Come back to your party before I let your friends have your presents."

As Mari cried out with "But, but, no, I don't..." her mother flipped the light switch to the room off. "Better keep the light off if no one is in here..."

With Mari being dragged out to her party, Mangle sat in the dark questioning where her new friend was going, wishing she could follow.

* * *

**Fazbear Family Notes - 3/14/1975**

_PAGE__ 8_

The "Mangle" animatronic has begun moving again. We believe that this may be related to the decrease in power usage, so we have decided not to interfere. So few children go into Kid's Cove anyways.

(We'd get rid of it, but the "Legends of 'The Mangle'" seem to create a fair amount of conversation between the children.)


End file.
